I just made the drive home from Scottsdale to Chandler babbling to myself the entire time.
Several months ago our book club read "The Rules of Civility" the focus of which was a "click" of twenty somethings in the 1940's, totally self-involved to the point that their entire frame of reference was limited to the narrow niche they carved out for themselves. It was really a great book; one where they peeled the grape, and in hindsight had a whistful OMG moment. That's just one of my thoughts this evening.
The other was an epiphany I had in my own twenties when I realized the narrow minded reality of a college campus.
I was excited by the prospects of tonight's class - the "ADVANCED" students were showing up with some of their latest work. I'm dreaming of teachable moments and inspired art. I am not a good people person - I'm just not. I had every intention of remaining silent and for the most part I did until the last gifted artist put up an art journal type page she had done and a photo rendition of the same that looked very much like a printed digital page; she scanned her original. . .So dummy me ~ I'm looking at what she did thinking, WOW you could use the Bamboo, draw and print individual images on water color paper, turn them into a transfer or a transparency, cut them out and create a fantastic tactile collage. Ya know I think I need to do this. . .why? because tonight I had some one who doesn't know me, who doesn't know Jack about the computer look me in the eyes and say "I don't want to end up like Cloth, Paper Scissors." which by the way is what she thinks Claudine Hellmuth is. There was some extreme elitism going on here and it would seem that without firing a shot, without ever sharing my art, I have the appearance of being a crafty little mid-west scrapbooker. as Dev would say Unbelievable.
So what's the teachable moment in all this - sometimes when you're on a mission, the only way to EXPAND is to put up and shut up with a smile :)
